


I see your name everyday

by PlanetOblivion



Series: we're destined for each other [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Soulmate AU, not that much of soulmates actually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-24 22:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20365780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlanetOblivion/pseuds/PlanetOblivion
Summary: Marinette has the name Damian Wayne running down her leg. It's really not that important.





	I see your name everyday

Marinette knows that she should love her soulmate mark. And she does! It’s just that she doesn’t want to show it off, or have anybody looking, or knowing. So that means if something doesn’t go to her mid calf, she has to wear leggings or high socks.

She tried wearing synthetic skin over her mark but there was just something. . . wrong about it. So she makes do. It’s not like she’s the only one with the problem. Lots of people have negative feelings about soulmates in general. Marinette just feels like her soulmate mark is something private.

When Marinette is seven, she tried looking up the name. Damian Wayne. All she finds are articles about Bruce Wayne. No Damian in sight.

Over the years she sees her classmates find their soulmates. Rose finds Juleka, and later Ali. Nathaniel is one of the few that don’t have any markings and he stays quiet until Marinette introduces him to Marc and the two boys, they later announce, decide to be queer platonic partners. 

When she becomes Ladybug, there’s the problem of Chat Noir. Who is . . . fine. Or at least, he was until a few months in when he decides to say that they’re soulmates. He claims that the name Ladybug is on his forearm.

Marinette knows that’s not how it works.

But there are no other partners she can work with and despite what she thinks, she knows she can’t do the akuma battles alone. And Chat Noir seems to know it too. So when he amps up the flirting and unwanted attention and claims, Ladybug endures. She endures even when it’s revealed she can give out other miraculi.

Until one day she snaps. Chat has been arriving late more and more often and a civilian nearly gets killed when he decides that he can flirt whenever he wants to. Ladybug casts the cure and faces him on a rooftop. “Chat, you can’t keep doing this,” she says quietly.

“M’Lady—“ he starts casually.

“No, Chat!” she snaps. “You can’t keep doing this!”

“What I can’t flirt with my soulmate?” he taunts.

“No, you can’t,” Ladybug says forcefully. “Because I’m not your soulmate!”

“Yes, you are!” he insists. “I’ve told you; Ladybug is right across my wrist!”

Ladybug wants to scream. Because no matter how many times she explains, he never listens. He’s always the same every fight, always trying to play the victim, always being a liability. And she’s sick and tired about it! “A civilian almost died, Chat Noir!” 

“So what?” he yells back. “The miraculous cure would have brought them back!”

“That's not the point!” she screams. A flicker of surprise crosses Chat Noir’s face. “What if that won't happen? What if they had died for good?”

He scoffs. “You're crazy if you think no one has died from akuma attacks before. And they've all been brought back! You're worrying for nothing!”

“I'm not worrying for nothing, Chat. But they wouldn't have died from the akuma, they would've died from you,” she forces out. “If you hadn’t flirted then I wouldn't have been distracted by keeping you safe. And then you could've gotten her out of the way instead of me doing a clumsy pull with my yoyo.”

“Ladybug, c’mon. Think about what your doing, you're yelling at your soulmate, for God's sake,” Chat tries to say.

“Urgh! I just--you don't get it, Chat Noir. I'm leaving. Goodbye.” She leaves before he can get a word in otherwise.

When she detransforms in her room, Marinette looks at Tikki helplessly. "What am I gonna do, Tikki? I can't get rid of him."

"Why can't you?" Tikki asks.

"Because he's my partner. Because if he's not here then I don't have any backup! The people in my class don't really deserve it, the people who do have such busy schedules, Luka is planning on going on tour in a week or two, and Kagami's leaving for a trip a few days from now," Marinette cries.

She collapses on her bed and throws an arm over her face. Tikki rests gently in her stomach. "Us kwamis are thinking about replacing the black cat. The only problem is that you're the one that needs to collect it."

Marinette freezes. "That means. . . that means I'll know who Chat Noir is."

"It's the only way," Tikki says gently. "The black cat hasn't been acting the way he should be. Just collect it in his sleep."

Marinette tries not to think about a morning when she'll wake up and not have the earrings on.

When she goes the next night, Tikki whispers his name in her ears. Ladybug doesn't want to think about how stupid she was a few years ago. She thinks how glad she is she got rid of her celebrity crush.

When she opens the wind and drops down, neon green eyes watch her silently. She tries to express her regret on her face as she lifts the model's hand. Plagg only nods once before she slips the ring off and he disappears. She places Adrien's hand down and tries not to think about how negatively he can react. Ladybug closes the window and sets off, with Adrien never even stirring.

Marinette wears it as a necklace. A way to make sure she doesn't lose it. Lila asks, sickly sweet, "Aw, Adrien, what happened to your ring?"

"I must have lost it," Adrien replies with a blank smile. Lila hums and hugs his arm closer.

Marinette only places a hand over her chest, above where the ring rests under her shirt.

Marinette guesses because of all that happened, she sort of forgot about her soulmate mark. Until one day she wakes up and it's burning. She stifles a scream and grabs her laptop. Sure her mark has throbbed before, or gone numb. But now it feels like it's on fire.

All the search results say that she should be calling the hospital for her soulmate and Marinette feels a spike of dread. She doesn't know where her soulmate is. In an act of desperation, she does something she hasn't done since she was seven. She types Damian Wayne into the search bar and presses Enter.

This time, there are search results. Much more than last time. She scans the recent articles, but none of them say anything about why her mark is burning like it's drenched in lava. Marinette distantly wonders if she'll be able to use her leg in the future at all.

All of the articles say the same thing. Damian, from what they say, is a cold, emotionless boy, who many speculate is markless. Marinette knows that's not true. And she hopes, through the pain, that he's okay.

She loses track of time and when she looks at the lower hand clock, she swears. She gets dressed in a hurry, shoving on a T-shirt, skirt, and nearly tripping on the stairs as she pulls up her knee high socks. Thankfully the burning sensation has lowered to a throbbing level of pain but Marinette still yells in her head as she runs towards the school.

The noirnette is right next to the classroom door when the bell rings and she bursts into the classroom. Marinette takes deep breaths as she smiles at the teacher. "Hello," she greets.

Ms. Bustier levels a look at her. "That's the third time this week, Marinette." The class snickers.

"I know," Marinette admits, starting to walk to the back of the classroom. "I'll just, uh, take my seat."

When she's situated, Ms. Bustier gives a satisfied nod and says to the class, "Well. I'm happy to announce that we are going to take a field trip to Gotham as a foreign language program."

Of course, when she leaves, Lila says, "Oh, I'm so happy we'll be able to go there! My soulmate lives there, did you all know?"

The girls gush over Lila. Marinette doesn't pay any attention, sketching some new designs on spare paper. It's only when a name gets mentioned that her head shoots up. "Yeah, Damian will love to see me! He probably won't meet any of you though, he doesn't like being public, you know because of paparazzi. He is a Wayne after all." All the girls squeal and the guys look with smiles.

Damian Wayne? Marinette spends the rest of the class with a sense of sick satisfaction. No matter how much Lila lies, she'll never have Damian Wayne as a soulmate. At least that's one thing Lila won't ever get.

The initial anticipation and excitement for the trip leaves Marinette as she sits on the steps of the hotel. Tikki presses against her in the purse and Marinette runs a hand through her loose hair. She hears steps walking towards her and keeps staring at the ground in front of her shoes, not wanting to socialise. "Hey," the person says, "what are you doing out here?"

Marinette shrugs and glances at him. And she freezes. Because the face staring at her is a face she's seen in many articles. "My class left me behind," she says faintly. "We're supposed to be touring Wayne Enterprises."

"Well, I can take you there," Damian Wayne offers. Marinette observes past the haze in her mind that he holds himself stiffly, favoring his right side.

"Sure," she says, maybe a bit too quickly. She stands up and offers a hand. "My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

Marinette can see him freeze. He shakes her hand with a smile on his face. "Damian Wayne. And you're my soulmate."

She laughs and since she's wearing a pink dress with leggings, she lets go of his hand and pulls up the dark fabric to reveal his name, running down the side of her calf. "I know," she says, and she pulls the leggings down.

"Maybe we can skip going to WE and grab a coffee, Marinette?" her soulmate proposes, offering his arm.

Marinette grins at him and loops their arms together. "I'd love that, Damian."


End file.
